Disgraced tycoon Alan Bond yesterday paid tribute to his “beautiful” wife Diana Bliss, who was found dead in their pool.

Bond, 73, called her an “angel” but was too distressed to say more. Ms Bliss was said to have long been suffering depression and police have ruled that her death on Saturday was not ­suspicious.

Ms Bliss, 57, stood by her husband when he was jailed for fraud and made bankrupt with debts of £1.2billion.

Bond, who emigrated to Australia from his home in Hammersmith, West London, at the age of 12 in 1950, trained as a signwriter before building a massive business empire and later being made bankrupt.

Ms Bliss, 57, his second wife, was a former flight attendant who established herself as a theatrical producer in London and New York. In the 1990s she was a patron and council member of the Royal Court Theatre in London.

She once said in an Australian magazine interview, “When I’m in Perth, Alan and I sit on the beach and watch the waves crash on this beautiful coastline.

“It will be there when we’re all gone and that makes you realise how fleeting life is and how elusive happiness is,” she added.

Bond’s daughter Jody said in a statement that her father was too distraught to comment further.

After his empire collapsed, Bond was declared bankrupt in 1992 with personal debts of £1.2 billion. He was jailed for seven years in 1997 after pleading guilty to using his controlling interest in the Bell Resources company to siphon off more than £800 million into the coffers of his Bond Corporation.

He served four years in jail and since then he has worked with his son, Craig, to build up a new fortune in oil and diamonds.